I have been asked a couple of times to explain how I took my recent light trail shots.It is really basic, but here it goes,

You'll need a light, small led or similar, low watt, battery to power it and string.Probably some kind of tape to keep stuff together.I used bits i had lying around, which made it awkward, as i had under counter lights left over but they needed a larger batter to power them. so a large torch battery is what i used.The lights were too bright, so i put them into an empty coffee tin and made a hole in the bottom to allow some light out.Tie or tape the string to your lights and battery and hang it from a height. this is your pendulum. if you want you can make a double pendulum which will give you the cushion type results, i preferred the swirls from the single pendulum.The length of string seems to dictate the duration of the swing more so than the weight.

Place your camera underneath, and away you go.

I generally set mine to f8-f13, iso 100, exp 30 secs to 5 minsyou need to shoot in the dark

I'm just sharing this one more or less as shot, as you can clearly see the way the cycles work on a complex pendulum, first cycle lasted around 18 secs and each other cycle lasted 2 secs less than the one previous.